...Accused South Carolina church shooter, acting as own lawyer, helps pick jurors

CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - The man accused of killing nine people at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, last year helped choose jurors on Tuesday for his federal death penalty trial after being allowed to serve as his own lawyer.

Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against 22-year-old avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof, who is charged with acts of hate crimes, obstruction of religion and firearm use that resulted in death ...

CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - A jury on Thursday found avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof guilty of federal hate crimes resulting in the deaths of nine black parishioners at a historic church in Charleston, South Carolina, last year.

Jurors also said Roof, 22, was guilty of firearms violations and obstructing the exercise of religion for those he shot and killed during a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015 ...

June 17, 2015: A white supremacist gunman kills nine black churchgoers during a Bible study session at a historic, predominantly black church in Charleston, South Carolina. The suspect Dylann Roof is awaiting trial

What a tragic and pathetic character. I do believe he was mentally sick and his illness manifested itself as lethal racism. But regardless, I hope he gets the needle...gas...chair..whatever. Just as long as he is taken off the planet....

What a tragic and pathetic character. I do believe he was mentally sick and his illness manifested itself as lethal racism. But regardless, I hope he gets the needle...gas...chair..whatever. Just as long as he is taken off the planet....

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... Roof, who insisted on representing himself during the sentencing phase of his 33-count murder trial, was found guilty last month for the slaughter of nine black parishioners at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church in June 2015 ...

... Wearing slacks and a blue cable-knit sweater — his bowl-cut hair obviously recently shaped — Roof approached the lectern with a single, yellow, letter-size sheet of paper for his closing argument. Barely audible — and his pauses were longer than his sentences — he made essentially two suggestions seemingly aimed at creating doubt about his alleged hatred of black people and his intent in carrying out his mission, which he himself previously identified as wanting to incite racial violence ...